Hey there, and welcome to the official Lady Margaret Hall (LMH) 'Ask us anything' thread.

I’m Marrium, the Outreach Officer at LMH (weird job title right? You can read more about it and me here). LMH is one of the 38 independent colleges of the University of Oxford, and it’s my job to encourage students to think about making an application.

So if you'd like to find out more about LMH (here's one way to do that) and what it might be like to study here, please do use this thread, or send me a pm and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

I was just curious to know how well received the foundation year has been? Have you had a lot of applications?

HelloThanks for your question. We’ve had great support andenthusiasm from schools and students and received a range of applications from acrossthe country.They are still coming in as the deadline closes on 6thJune, so if you know of anyone who is interested, meets the criteria, and wouldlike to apply then send them the link below.https://lmhfoundationyear.com/

(Original post by personage)
Hello! What are the loveliest things about LMH? Some of my friends say it's far out, but does that matter? What subject did you study, and what did you like about it?

Hello
LMH is a great college - it's friendly, has a lovely community feel and you can have accommodation in college for the full three years. It's not that far! It's a short cycle to Oxford and very easy to get number of university departments from here - take a look at our film. http://www.lmh.ox.ac.uk/

And here's a film featuring our tutors- we have world class teaching here and if you'd like to know more please get in touch on this thread and we can help further.

(Original post by LMH OXFORD)
Hello
LMH is a great college - it's friendly, has a lovely community feel and you can have accommodation in college for the full three years. It's not that far! It's a short cycle to Oxford and very easy to get number of university departments from here - take a look at our film. http://www.lmh.ox.ac.uk/

And here's a film featuring our tutors- we have world class teaching here and if you'd like to know more please get in touch on this thread and we can help further.

Hi there! Just wanted to add to Jo's message: it really isn't far at all! Though being slightly further out does have its advantages e.g. big beautiful gardens.

Re: subject I studied and what I liked about it. I studied English Lit & Lang and really enjoyed it! My favourite thing was the breadth of the course - looking at English from its origins in Anglo-Saxon England all the way to the 21st century really does give you a super picture of the development of the language. And spending one on one time with tutors who are experts in their fields helped me to best explore this development. Open days would be a great way of meeting our tutors/checking LMH out more generally if you were interested by the way. This year they're taking place on the 29th/30th June and 16th Sept. You can find out more about the day's events here.

Good Morning, I am a Year 11 student who is aspiring to come to Oxford, to study Medicine. What GCSE grades are required for this particular course, since different suggestions from different people has left me confused over this.
Thank You

(Original post by SmithAmelia)
Good Morning, I am a Year 11 student who is aspiring to come to Oxford, to study Medicine. What GCSE grades are required for this particular course, since different suggestions from different people has left me confused over this.
Thank You

(Original post by fuzz13)
Hi LMH, what is Classics like in this college and also do you have any general tips on reading around the subject? Do you have many rowers here? Thanks

Hi there! I have two responses for you. One from Joe Hill, a 3rd year Classics student, and the other from India who has just finished her degree:

From Joe: LMH is really great for Classics. We’ve got a big classics student community, with usually 5 or 6 classicists a year who are a mix of the courses (I.e. those that have Latin and Greek, those that have one language, those that have none) and we have a lot of internal college events arranged by both the tutors and students so we all have quite a classics community. Also in terms of the teaching we’re really lucky, we have essentially 5 dedicated classics tutors and the main tutor Amin Benaissa is brilliant – very organised and really cares about his students. Also a massive plus of LMH is 2 of these tutors are archaeology tutors, which basically no other college has, and means we get a lot more support for the compulsory art and archaeology parts of what we have to study. We also have a dedicated language tutor who gives so much essential support when you first start for learning the languages from scratch – something which a lot of colleges don’t do.For general reading – obviously Classics is a massive field involving so many different areas they genuinely do not expect you to know bits of everything; almost everyone comes with no philosophy, and I knew literally nothing about ancient history before arriving. I would recommend find one author, or one genre or time period that you’re really interested in and get to know it in detail or read more that is similar. I.e. if you like Ovid, then read more Latin love poetry like Catullus. I’d also recommend looking at books about the topic, secondary literature and critical works, so you make sure you’re getting different opinions.

From India:
LMH has a really friendly classics community made up of Lit Hum, CAAH, AMH and Classics joint schools students - because it's a bigger college we have a wider variety of classicists and also college tutors who cover pretty much all core bases in terms of specialisms. They are incredibly supportive and involved in every aspect of your studies; I just finished my finals and found that I had more extra revision tutorials scheduled (including those which I'd requested myself!) than friends at other colleges. In terms of reading around, there is a finite number of extant classical texts which makes it much easier to narrow down! It's quite fun and easy to get into reading drama, and a background understanding of Greek tragedy etc will always be helpful if you plan to do classics anywhere. Oxford classicists come from all sorts of different backgrounds, however, and although it's great to show your interest through wider reading there is nothing you are expected to have read before you apply. If you want to read around then use it as an opportunity to learn about what you enjoy most!And yes - we're a big college and our boat club is very active. I'm not into rowing whatsoever but I do know they've just had a very successful Summer VIIIs campaign, and there always seems to be something going on whether social or sport!

(Original post by personage)
HELLo LMH,
What is the food and accommodation like, and are the new buildings and quad open?
Thanks

Pretty good! We're one of the few colleges to guarantee accomodation in college for three years. You can live out if you want to, but most don't after seeing our rooms and gorgeous grounds (plus the convenience of having tasty, good value food and a really well-stocked library just minutes away from your desk isn't something to be underestimated...)

Rooms are assigned randomly to new students (though do say if you have any necessary requirements) whilst older year groups have the opportunity to choose their rooms based on a 'balloting' system (to decide the order the rooms get picked). In the First Year, you're quite likely to be in Deneke, a building put aside exclusively for Freshers and therefore a great way to get to know your year! A big portion of the rooms at LMH have ensuite bathrooms (including a small number of first year rooms); and shared bathroom facilities are always available - no horror stories about 20 people sharing one shower!

You'll also have at least one kitchen on every corridor at LMH alongside the dining hall which is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner Monday-Friday, as well as Saturday brunch and Sunday dinner. Veggie options are available and catering staff are always happy to cater to any other allergies or dietary requirements - for both regular meal times and formal hall (takes place once a week. Basically a chance to eat a delicious, three-course, waiter-served meal complete with candlebras and good company! You are entitled to two free formals in a year. Any extra visits for you or a guest are less than £10 a head)

Re: building work. We're hoping to have this ready in time for September

(Original post by LMH OXFORD)
Hi there! I have two responses for you. One from Joe Hill, a 3rd year Classics student, and the other from India who has just finished her degree:

From Joe: LMH is really great for Classics. We’ve got a big classics student community, with usually 5 or 6 classicists a year who are a mix of the courses (I.e. those that have Latin and Greek, those that have one language, those that have none) and we have a lot of internal college events arranged by both the tutors and students so we all have quite a classics community. Also in terms of the teaching we’re really lucky, we have essentially 5 dedicated classics tutors and the main tutor Amin Benaissa is brilliant – very organised and really cares about his students. Also a massive plus of LMH is 2 of these tutors are archaeology tutors, which basically no other college has, and means we get a lot more support for the compulsory art and archaeology parts of what we have to study. We also have a dedicated language tutor who gives so much essential support when you first start for learning the languages from scratch – something which a lot of colleges don’t do.For general reading – obviously Classics is a massive field involving so many different areas they genuinely do not expect you to know bits of everything; almost everyone comes with no philosophy, and I knew literally nothing about ancient history before arriving. I would recommend find one author, or one genre or time period that you’re really interested in and get to know it in detail or read more that is similar. I.e. if you like Ovid, then read more Latin love poetry like Catullus. I’d also recommend looking at books about the topic, secondary literature and critical works, so you make sure you’re getting different opinions.

From India:
LMH has a really friendly classics community made up of Lit Hum, CAAH, AMH and Classics joint schools students - because it's a bigger college we have a wider variety of classicists and also college tutors who cover pretty much all core bases in terms of specialisms. They are incredibly supportive and involved in every aspect of your studies; I just finished my finals and found that I had more extra revision tutorials scheduled (including those which I'd requested myself!) than friends at other colleges. In terms of reading around, there is a finite number of extant classical texts which makes it much easier to narrow down! It's quite fun and easy to get into reading drama, and a background understanding of Greek tragedy etc will always be helpful if you plan to do classics anywhere. Oxford classicists come from all sorts of different backgrounds, however, and although it's great to show your interest through wider reading there is nothing you are expected to have read before you apply. If you want to read around then use it as an opportunity to learn about what you enjoy most!And yes - we're a big college and our boat club is very active. I'm not into rowing whatsoever but I do know they've just had a very successful Summer VIIIs campaign, and there always seems to be something going on whether social or sport!

Wow!! Thank you that's amazing! Also just quickly I noticed on another reply you mentioned you were one of the few colleges that offers accommodation for the curation of the course. Do you know which are the other colleges that have this arrangement? Thanks again